The present invention generally relates to service request devices and service request reception devices. The present invention also relates to a revenue and productivity optimization system that utilizes an environmental sensor with a service request device to generate computerized revenue and productivity optimization recommendations to a supervising entity. In addition, the present invention also relates to utilizing a service request device to prompt a response from a service performer wearing, holding, or watching a service request reception device. Furthermore, the present invention also relates to improving operational efficiency of an organization by intelligently analyzing environmental sensor and service request device feedback, and then recommending specific actions that may increase revenue or productivity of the organization.
Service-oriented and in-person business operations often deploy service request devices to enable a customer to gain attention from a service performer. For example, a classical and conventional form of a service request device is a physical bell placed on a table in a restaurant, on a hotel check-in counter, or on a front counter of a store. When a customer rings the physical bell, the sound of the physical bell alerts a service performer, such as a restaurant worker, a hotel staff member, or a store clerk, to be physically present in front of the customer to fulfill a service request.
In recent years, electronic service request devices (e.g. electronic service request bells, one-way or two-way pagers, and etc.) are widely deployed in business operations to prompt a service performer via a service request reception device that a service is being requested at a particular location. These electronic service request devices can be utilized in restaurants, hotels, stores, or even in assembly lines in a factory. In many cases, an electronic service request device has a unique device identification number or code that is correlated to a table number, a counter number, an assembly line location number, or another location-identifying information easily understood by a service performer. In case of industrial and manufacturing operations usage of the electronic service request devices, a factory worker can press a bell button from a service request device to prompt attention from a supervisor or a support staff, if there is a problem or an issue in an assembly-line operation. Alternatively, the electronic service request device can be utilized to indicate a completion of an assembly or a request for supply of materials in the assembly-line operation.
By analyzing a service requester's bell pressing frequencies and time intervals between each bell press on a service request device, an electronic system that collects and analyzes user interaction data associated with the service request device may be able to provide revenue and productivity optimization suggestions to a business, a manufacturing facility, or another organization. Therefore, it may be advantageous to provide a novel electronic system that generates computerized suggestions and recommendations for potential increases in revenue and/or productivity, based on the analysis of the user interaction data associated with the service request device. Furthermore, it may also be advantageous to provide a novel electronic system that correlates the service request device's user interaction data with certain environmental variables, such as temperature, humidity, ambient noise levels, brightness, and ambient gas levels near or inside the service request device, in order to generate incisive and detailed computerized suggestions and recommendations for revenue and/or productivity increases to an organization.
Moreover, it may also be advantageous to devise a novel electronic system that identifies and determines a poorly-behaving service performer that exhibits chronically-problematic responses to service requests by customers or other individuals. In addition, it may also be advantageous to devise this novel electronic system to report the identified, poorly-behaving service performer to a supervising entity or to an operational quality control staff.